TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and EU Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton in a joint statement after nearly two weeks of talks underlined the need for more efforts and time to reach an agreement with the world powers over Tehran's nuclear program.

Zarif and Ashton who presided the negotiating sides, emphasized at the end of Iran-Group 5+1 (the US, Russia, China, Britain and France plus Germany) negotiations that they have held different sessions in different forms and in a constructive atmosphere to reach a final comprehensive agreement.

Due to certain differences over some fundamental issues the two sides agreed to extend the Joint Plan of Action by November 24, they added.

The full text of the joint statement signed by the negotiating sides in Vienna is as follows:

-We have decided together with the foreign ministers of the EU 3+3 (G5+1) to continue implementation of the measures of the Joint Plan of Action until November 24, 2014 according to timetable. Iran and EU 3+3 once again emphasize to continue implementation of all their commitments in the Joint Plan of Action in an effective and timely manner,

-We will hold our meetings in different formats in the coming weeks in order to reach an agreement on a joint plan of action in a decisive manner,

-We increased our efforts, including through active presence of foreign ministers and their deputies, to closely become familiar with the progress in talks,

-Although tangible advances have been made in some issues and we have acted jointly to write the text of joint plan of action, but we are still having meaningful differences on fundamental issues which needs further time and more efforts,

-We held different sessions in different forms and in a constructive atmosphere to reach a final and comprehensive agreement which would guarantee that Iran's nuclear program will always be peaceful. We and the political directors of EU3+3 (Britain, France, Germany, the US, Russia and China) intensively tried to reach a joint plan of action by making use of political acceleration resulting from approval and easy implementation of the joint plan of action back in November 24, 2013,

-we are thankful to the Austrian government and the UN for their extraordinary support for hosting these negotiations.

Also, according to Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister and senior negotiator Seyed Abbas Araqchi, a sum of $2.8 billion of Iran's frozen assets will be remitted to the country's account in the next four months.

"A total of $2.8 billion will be paid to Iran in six installments in the next four months," Araqchi told reporters in Vienna on Friday, adding that four installments each $500 million and two installments each $400 million will be paid to Iran as of August 1 with a gap of three months each.

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